New smartphones crush compact camera demand

BEGINNING OF END?The market for compact cameras is taking a hit from picture-taking smartphones, but some analysts say point-and-shoot cameras are sure to survive

AFP, TOKYO

The soaring popularity of smartphones is crushing demand for point-and-shoot cameras, threatening the once-vibrant sector as firms scramble to hit back with Web-friendly features and boost quality, analysts say.

A sharp drop in sales of digital compact cameras marks them as the latest casualty of smartphones, while videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle against the all-in-one features offered by the likes of Apple’s iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

Just as digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid shift to photograph-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by Japanese firms including Canon, Olympus, Sony and Nikon.

“We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said Nobuo Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities.

Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42 percent in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48 percent, according to the association.

Higher-end cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4 percent in that time, it said.

Part of the decline was because of weakness in debt-hit Europe and a Tokyo-Beijing territorial spat that has sparked a consumer boycott of Japanese products in the Chinese market.

Those features have also dug into video game makers such as Nintendo, which has just released its new Wii U game console, as smartphone owners increasingly download free online games or store music on the devices instead of using standalone MP3 players.

“The market for compact digital cameras shrank at a faster speed and scale than we had imagined as smartphones with camera functions spread around the world,” Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa said this month. Olympus said its camera business lost money in its fiscal first-half because of the growing popularity of camera-equipped smartphones and a strong yen, which makes Japanese exports less competitive overseas.

Digital camera firms have scaled back their sales targets for the fiscal year to March in a “collapsing” market, said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities.

“Order volumes at parts suppliers currently appear to be down more than 30 percent year-on-year,” Wadaki said.

Firms are scrambling to keep improving picture quality, offering features such as water-proofing and expanding their Internet features, like allowing users to share pictures through social media networks.

Camera makers say growth areas include emerging economies — where many own neither a camera nor a smartphone — along with replacement demand among compact-camera owners.

The fall-off in demand has not been as stark for the pricier detachable lens cameras favored by avid photographers and growing ranks of camera-buff retirees, particularly in rapidly aging Japan, they say.

Another emerging battleground is for mirrorless cameras, which can be made nearly as small as compact cameras, but with a picture quality that rivals their bulkier counterparts.